No. 70. 

 UNIOLA PALMERI Vasey, Gard. & For. ii. 401 (1889). 



Plant perennial, with a strong rootstock, dioscions. 



Culms nearly erect, rigid, smooth, 2 to 4 feet tall. 



Leaves numerous, distichous, with smooth, close, scarious-margined sheaths open 

 above, and erect or slightly spreading, smooth, involute, sharp-pointed blades 4 to 8 

 inches long, more numerous and longer above; ligule nearly obsolete, with slight 

 woolly tufts at the angles. 



Inflorescence of staminate plant a firm, erect or slightly nodding panicle, 8 to 10 

 nches long, somewhat secund ; rays mostly in twos or threes, erect, unequal, the lower 

 ones 1 to 4 inches long and often subdivided. 



Spikelets linear-oblong, compressed, 7- to 9-flo wered, 8 to 10 lines long ; empty glumes 

 narrowly ovate-lanceolate, acute, smooth, the first 1-nerved, 3£ lines long, the second 

 £ line longer, obscurely 3-nerved; floral glumes lance-ovate, acute, smooth, 9- to li- 

 ner ved, 4 lines long, the lower 1 or 2 floral glumes and some of the uppermost usually 

 empty; palet linear-oblong, smooth on the 2 keels, 3£ to 4 lines long; stamens 3. 



Inflorescence of pistillate plant an oblong panicle included at the base, 4 to 6 

 inches long, denser than the staminate panicle, rays few and short. 



Spikelets turgid, lance-oblong, 7- to 9-flowered, 1 to 1£ inches long; first empty 

 glume linear-lanceolate, acute, smooth, 1-nerved, 4 to 6 lines long; second empty glume 

 ovate, acute, carinate, 3-nerved, 4 to 6 lines long; floral glumes ovate-lanceolate, acute, 

 scarious-margined, 11- to 15-nerved, 6 to 7 lines long, 1 or 2 of the lower floral glumes 

 usually empty; palet lance-ovate, nearly acute, smooth, obscurely 3-nerved on each 

 side of the 2 keels, 4 to 5 lines long; grain linear oblong, with a scar on one side 

 and a shallow channel on the opposite side, brown, about 3 lines long including the 

 persistent, triangular, bifid style; internodes of the rachiila smooth, nearly 1 line 

 long, disarticulating between the flowers. All the glumes and palets in each sex are 

 rather thick and rigid. 



Plate LXX; 1, staminate panicle; 2, pistillate panicle; a, staminate spikelet 

 oj)ened; b, pistillate spikelet opened, showing the grain from the side next the palet. 



Sonora, Mexico. Covering large areas on the banks of the Colorado Eiver near 

 its mouth, growing only where flooded at high tide ; probably also along the river 

 into Arizona. The grain is gathered and used by the Indians of the region. 



